• tnco n ore

THE IMAGE In our modern age of 24-hour

televised news, illustrated magazines, and constant information on the internet, 1t IS d1ff1cult to imagine a time when mass-produced pictures were considered newsworthy and precious. In the Lincoln era, engravings and lithographs of national leaders, and the events that made them heroes, were widely published, aggressively marketed, eagerly collected, and lovingly displayed in many family parlors around the nation.

Lincoln and image-makmg in America ach1eved populanty together. In the late 1850s, just as his fame blossomed nationwide, photography enjoyed a technological revolut1on. Old-fash1oned, one-image-only copper and tin plates yielded to glass negatives that could produce unhm1ted copies of each pose. Illustrated newspapers-still incapable of printing photographs-nonetheless began publishing cartoons and wood engravings. Publishers like Currier & lves churned out single-sheet images by the thousands, easily affordable, and well-sUited for framing.

Engravers and lithographers "discovered" Lincoln after he unexpectedly won the presidential nommatlon m May 1860. Faced with a "cnsis" that promosed huge profits-for Lincoln was all but unknown--printmakers responded with an avalanche of images introducing the Illinois nominee to an

eager public. Many were softened to mask the candidate's homely appearance. Aware that his detractors wanted pictures that ridiculed Lincoln, many of these same publishers simultaneously issued images that lampooned him.

Printmaking was a commercial medium, and the publishers made Lincoln a favonte subject not because they admired him, but because he earned them money. For this reason, the types of prints Lincoln inspired over the next five years-images that variously depicted him as a candidate, commander-in-chief, emancipator, guardian of the Union, suppressor of civi l liberties. and ultimately, national martyr-accurately reflected public attitudes.

-ftttn·r!ttr-tllz. )lfr'. f.b,,~C<In Lincoln was vaulted mto national

prominence in 1858 by the widely attended and reported Lincoln-Douglas debates. Though he lost the Senate election, the fame he won by sharing the limelight with Douglas transformed him into a legitimate contender for the 1860 Republican presidential nominat ion. In February of that year, he delivered a brilliant speech at New York's Cooper Union and posed the same day for a flattering new photograph by Mathew Brady. When the speech and portrait were mass-produced, Lincoln earned national prominence.

Still, Lincoln remaoned a contender only, not a front-runner for the presidential nod.

(continued on page 3)

"long Abraham lincoln a L.ittle longer,"

a cartoon by Fronk Bellew, oppeored In Harper's Weekly

on November 26, 1864, after Lincoln's re-election.

Number 1897

Table of Contents Abraham Lincoln: The Image by Harold Holzer

Interview with Ronald C. White, Jr.

lincoln and Taney .wd the leadership lessons of Ex Parte Merryman by Col. Mark Toole

Dual Book Review by Myron Marty

Lincoln Lore is the bulletin of

THE ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY and THE FRIENDS OF THE LINCOLN COLLECTION OF

INDIANA

ACPL: Jo Burkhardt

Cheryl Ferverda Jane Gastineau Philip Sharpley Cindy VanHorn Curt Witcher

Friends of the Lincoln Collection:

Sara Gabbard

Contributors: Harold Holzer Myron Marty

Col. Mark L. Toole Ronald C. White Jr.

Sara Gabbard

Post Office Address Box 11083

Fort Wayne, Indiana 46855

Q

LINCOLN LORE

Board members of Friends of the Lincoln Collection of Indiana have voted to establish

THE ROLLAND FAMILY LECTURE.

This series, to be presented annually in May, will honor /an and Mimi Rolland for their support

for the study of Abraham Lincoln.

2011 McMurtry Lecture

The McMurtry lecture will be given by Ronald C. White, Jr. Friday, September gth

at the Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne and

Saturday, September 1Uh at the Indiana State Museum, Indianapolis.

The event in Fort Wayne will also include an informal program by White at a "brown bag lunch"

on the day of the lecture. (Members receiving Lincoln Lore will receive

separate invitations to these events.)

~~.r~r---------------------------------------------------------------------page 2

Lincoln Lore® ISSN 0 162·8615

His managers at the May Republican National Convention in Chicago pursued a strategy of making "Honest Abe" every delegate's second choice for the nomination. The plan worked. When front·runner W1lham H. Seward of New York faltered the Lincoln forces gained mome~tum, and catapulted him to a third-ballot victory.

At the moment he won, L1ncoln supporters sitting in the balconies showered the hall with hand·colored woodcuts of the freshly anointed nominee. Issued on cheap paper in a hasty style, few surv1ved the trampling feet of excited delegates. Hence, they are among the rarest of Lincoln prints. Lincoln and his wife Mary, never I iked the photo 'on which it was based, an 1857 pose notable for the "disordered condition" of his hair. The portrait became especially unsu1table once Republican leaders heard a Chicago newsboy hawking copies: "Here's your likeness of Old Abe! Will look a good deal better when he gets his hair combed!"

Brady's Cooper Union photo suited supporters--and the printmakers.-as a source for dignified·looking prints. The ~rady pose inspired engravings, hth~graphs, patriotic envelopes, stat1onery, sheet·music covers . ' campa1gn textiles, pins, and broadsides. The public appetite for Lincoln portraits showed no signs of abating, and publishers searched for additional images. The most ambitious printmakers sent artists to Springfield to create paintings that could be used for new engravings and lithographs, like Leopold Grozelier's lithograph of Thomas Hicks oil on canvas, the first painting of Lincoln from life.

True to the tradition of the day Lincoln did not campaign ' personally. These prints represented the candidate

LINCOLN LORE

throughout the country. But they were an entirely commercial-not a political-phenomenon. Unlike today's campaign paraphernalia, they were not commissioned by the party, but by the publishers, and thus accurately mirrored pubhc interest. As such they testify to Lincoln's growing fame.

f'llrrili117 at t!te ~t11rlirlatoJ: 'G, l'it·a/11 roJ a 11rl ~~ riN•NJ

Not all 1860 campaign prints were designed to honor the candidates. Some of the same publishers who issued flattering portraits designed for Lincoln's admirers also printed savage cartoons meant to appeal to his enemies. The resulting flurry of caricatures added a touch of clever humor to a divisive presidential campaign.

Democratic nominee Stephen A. Douglas was mercilessly lampooned as a chi ld in search of his mother when he headed to New England, allegedly to visit his ailing parent, but managed to make "unseemly" campaign speeches along the route. Constitutional Union Party candidate, John Bell was depicted as a man of mystery-a large "bell " covering his head-while the Southern Democrats' nominee, John C. Breckinridge was linked to the unpopular ' mcumbent President, James Buchanan.

The log rail became the canonical emblem of Lincoln cartoons. He was usually po_rtrayed in a workingman's sh1rt, rather than the refined coat and tie worn by his rivals. Lincoln used his rail to fend off opponents trying to break into the White House, or to drive the symbolic "wildcat" of sectional discord back into the Republican bag. Sympathetic caricatures showed him dressed in the oilcloth slickers worn by "Wide Awakes," the pro-Lincoln marching groups

page 3

Number 1897

whose members carried torches in campaign parades throughout the North.

Anti-Lincoln cartoons showed Lincoln straddling the ubiquitous rail (symbolizing the planks of the party platform), wincing in discomfort, or riding it hobbyhorse style to the dangerous tune of the controversial Republican ed1tor Horace Greeley. The most virulent anti -Lincoln cartoons focused on the explosive issue of race, warning that Lincoln was an untested politician who might favor such "radical" policies as the immediate abolition of slavery and racial equality. These cartoons required careful reading; the characters spoke to each other, and to the viewers, to emphasize the political bias of each picture.

We know little about how these cartoons were used. Published on separate sheets of heavy·stock paper, rather than on newspaper editorial pages, they were too ribald for the home. The scant surviving evidence suggests that most cartoons ended up on tavern walls, political clubhouses, or in store windows. English visitor Charles Dickens noticed a Lincoln cartoon in a shop during an 1860 visit to New York. Whether they mfluenced voters is impossible to know. They certainly enlivened the presidential campaign, and mtroduced many of the essential indelible elements of the Lincoln' image.

· JJ:.ut<JI ISJkf. _11p,, The satirical cartoon stra1n was

never the dominant one m Victorian culture. Responding to the satirical strain was the more powerful sentimental strain.

Lincoln's face-its moles, scars, and other flaws neatly masked by sympathetic artists--seemed to reveal strength, determination, and wisdom. Flattering portraits served as powerfu l antidotes to

Number 1897

rumors that Lincoln was simply too ugly to serve as President ("Don' t, for God's sake, show his picture," joked one 1860 Democratic campaign song.) The symbols of his rise from obscurity- the log cabin, the log rail, the rail·splitter's maul, and the fl atboat-reminded viewers of the limitless opportunities of American democracy. Printmakers supplied portraits designed to elevate his status, showing him seated in symbol ic chairs of state, amidst patriotic stars·and·stripes, and with piles of books suggesting his wisdom. Such prints might be as exaggerated as cartoons or caricatures, but they spoke eloquently to Republ ican supporters.

When Lincoln grew a beard following his election in November 1860, his image took on another dimension: the "Honest Old Abe" of pro·Lincoln campaign prints became the dignified "Uncle Abraham" of presidential portraiture . So eager was the public to see pictorial evidence of the President's new image, that many printmakers simply slapped imagined whiskers on their now·outdated beardless campaign prints. The resulting pictures were occasionally rid iculous-but judging from the many and varied copies that survive, wildly popular.

J/%e % ti-§lilt(dtt .finaye The greatest caricaturist of the

day was located in the enemy's camp. Adalbert Johann Volck (1828·1912) was a Bavarian-born etcher who emigrated to Baltimore, a city awash in anti-Union sentiment. Baltimore was so hostile that Lincoln was persuaded to sneak through the city to avoid assassinat ion en route to his inauguration-an event Volck satirized mercilessly by depicting a heavi ly disguised Lincoln peering from a box car,

LINCOLN LORE

frightened by the sight of a harmless cat. Like many Marylanders, Volck argued that the Republican North worshipped the black man, and that Emancipation was an invitation to bloody slave insurrections. According to Volck, Lincoln composed his Emancipation Proclamation with an inkwell grasped by Satan, his foot resting rudely on a Bible.

Volck's technica l skills were refracted through a sharp satirica l eye. The President's fondness for telling funny stories inspired one etching of Lincoln as a court jester. In one of his prints, Volck portrayed Lincoln as the hopelessly idealistic Don Quixote, carrying a John Brown pike instead of a lance (or rail). He is accompanied by the much-hated Union general Benjamin Butler, known in the South as "the Beast of New Orleans," portrayed as Sancho Panza, complete with purloined Southern cutlery in his belt.

Volck's output has been identified as "Confederate" caricature, when in reality they were Copperhead cartoons, reflective of the anti-Lincoln sentiment that reigned in many Union areas, especially Border States. Other anti-Lincoln prints of the day were widely circulated. The Administration's policies on civil liberties and emancipation unleashed a torrent of critical caricature. Fortunately for Lincoln, they were not produced by major talents like Volck.

"If my name ever goes into history," Lincoln confided the day he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, "it will be for this act." America's printmakers, eventually fl ooded the market with images of the President as "the Great Emancipator; " in some he was shown literally lifting slaves

page 4

from their knees as if he had personally gone to their plantations to unshackle them. But such images did not greet the Proclamation-or its author­immediately. Though it went into effect on January 1, 1863, the document did not inspire prints until 1864, when they became fodder in the presidential campaign.

After Lincoln's death, printmakers seemed unsure how to deal with a subject that remained sensitive among white Americans, however epochal it seems in the light of history. Would white patrons buy prints that depicted people of color? Would African Americans earn enough money to buy such mementoes for thei r own homes? For a time, printmakers did not know the answers to these questions. Encouraged by Frederick Douglass, who urged free blacks to adorn their homes with prints-particularly prints of Lincoln (he placed Will iam Edgar Marshall's Lincoln engraving in his own house}-printmakers eventually produced a deluge of Emancipation graphics, cementing in public memory a vital chapter of the Lincoln story. But few emancipation prints bear a copyright date before 1865- when Lincoln's death and martyrdom transformed his most controversial act into his most sacred effort.

One print might have made a great impact during Lincoln's I ifeti me had it reached the pub I ic in a timely manner. When, in 1864, Lincoln signed on to receive the first proof copy of A. H. Ritchie's engraving of Francis B. Carpenter's monumental painting, The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation, he had every reason to believe his engraving would arrive short ly. But Ritchie's labors took him two years. By the time the print appeared, Lincoln was dead.

To no one's surpnse, the engraving became a best seller-probably the best·selling Lincoln print of all time.

.~; JlM ,f't.N/((11/ f/Jm;klenlial (f..;/('(•/k·n

The presidential election of 1864 proved that free elections could go forward during a Civil War. The race pitted Lincoln against Democrat George B. McClellan, the former General of the Army of the Potomac who detested the Republican policy on Emancipation, but was saddled by a peace plank in his party platform that called the war a failure and urged armistice. McClellan disavowed the plank, but cartoonists exploited the "flip· flopping• by depicting McClellan as an acrobat perilously mounted simultaneously on two horses (war and peace) galloping in opposite directions.

Race played a major role throughout the 1864 campaign, in some cases bringing revolutionary (if sadly temporary) changes in the customary. minstrel· like depictions of black people in popular art. One cartoon, suggesting that McClellan's election would be a victory for Confederate leader Jefferson Davis, featured an unusual depiction of racial harmony, as white and black children emerge from a school. A contrary view held that McClellan was the genuine patriot, trying to keep extremists like Lincoln and Davis from tearing the country apart.

Most anti ·Lincoln campaign cartoons warned ominously of the dangers of a bi·racial society. One series of cancatures evolved from depicting Lincoln with black people to depicting him as a black mao-the Bard's famous Moor, Othello, a portrayal tnspired by the President's fondness for Shakespeare. Other cartoons implied that despite four

UNCOLN LORE

years tn the Whtte House, Ltncoln remained a clown, incapable of taking the national crisis seriously. His sense of humor, a quality that has endeared him to modern America, was something of a liability during thts hotly contested presidential campaign. Other anti·Lincoln campaign cartoonists seized on the issue of civil liberttes as a weapon. One illustrated the burial of the American Constitution.

A libelous report that Lincoln had asked a companion to sing a humorous tune on a visit to the casualty·strewn Antietam battlefield led to yet another hostile cartoon. In truth, Ltncoln had asked for the song to cheer him up after the gloomy visit; he was miles from the battlefield when the event occurred. Lincoln angrily drafted a public letter to answer the charge, but ultimately decided not to issue it. The story was not completely scotched unti l the 1890s, when Lincoln's companion on the day of the visit published the text.

One of the best cartoons of the campaigo-in simplicity of conception, aptness of characterization, and cleverness of literary allusioo-combined two elements of the President's reputatton: his fondness for both humor and Shakespearean tragedy. It showed McClellan as Hamlet (a metaphor for the general's infamous indecistveness) holding aloft Lincoln's head in the famous burial scene, exclaiming: "A fellow of infinite jest." The print managed to criticize Lincoln and McClellan alike.

Number 1897

the 191h century-sendtng the victorious North spiraling in a single week from the giddy optimism of newly restored peace to the full despair of mass mourmng. Engravers and lithographers immediately launched an intense competition to reach the publ ic first with depictions of the events of April 14 and April 15, 1865.

In their rush, many prints got the details muddled-some inaccurately portraying the presidential box and its occupants at Ford's Theatre. others adding wholly imagined details (like the lithograph that showed Lincoln rising to his feet after being shot, and clutching his bloody head). Still, with no other way for widely scattered Americans to visualize the incident, all these prints found enthusiastic audiences in the months and weeks after the murder.

The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, instantly emerged as a villain of Satanic proportions­shown as a coward sneaking up on Lincoln from behind, or, in one lithograph, receiving instructions and inspiration from the Devil himself in the seconds before shooting the President.

Lincoln died nine hours after the shooltng in a tiny bedroom inside a boarding house across the street from the theatre. Though the death chamber could only accommodate a few visitors at the time, most printmakers exaggerated its proportions in order to show as many famous witnesses in their pictures as possible. Mary Lincoln-though she was not in the room when her husband breathed his last-was

Geat!t t./a fl>rr>Ytknl routinely shown tn such scenes, _ __ _:.7_ · - ------- as was Vice President Andrew

Nothing Abraham Lincoln did in Johnson, though his visit had been his life ever inspired-or brief and perfunctory. Lincoln's profi ted- America's printmakers beloved son, Tad, was also depicted, as did his death.The Lincoln though in reality he was never assassination was perhaps the brought to the scene that most momentous news event of sorrowful night.

page 5

Number 1897

Scholars have nicknamed the phenomenon the •· rubber room" effect: the invention of settings that expanded as needed to accommodate a panoply of figures appropriate for a history-altering event. Americans in 1865 desperately wanted depictions, however inaccurate, that provided assurance that Lincoln had died in a manner befitting our first assassinated President.

PJ;;i!wr · 9f%ralla 111

The apogee of the sentimental image of Abraham Lincoln came in depictions of the President with his family. Never wholly cognizant of the power of image-making, Lincoln did not imagine the impact of the "cult of the First Family," and did not live to know of its effect on his reputation. But the myriad Lincoln family prints published after his death launched a phenomenon visible at every newsstand. Magazines vied with each other to blazon forth color pictures and pulp stories about the President's wife and children.

Lincoln never provided the printmakers or the sentimental public with a suitable portrait of the First Family (a term not used in Lincoln's day). Mrs. Lincoln was never photographed with her husband, according to legend because she worried about the difference in their heights-"the long and short of it," Lincoln liked to joke. Lincoln's sons all sat for the cameras in Washington, but only his youngest boy, "Tad," ever posed with his father.

Their first photograph together, taken on February 9, 1864 at the suggestion of artist Francis B. Carpenter, showed the two examining a thick album of photographs at Mathew Brady's Washington studio. Oddly, the charming pose produced no known print adaptations until

LINCOLN LORE

after Lincoln's assassination fourteen months later. Suddenly, the photo album looked enough like a family bible to inspire several prints that so identified it, suggesting the influence of religion in Lincoln's home. Other printmakers used the image of Lincoln and Tad as the central feature for composite family pictures for which the public now yearned.

There was a sad irony to the sudden popularity of these Lincoln family engravings and lithographs. The strain of war left the living President little time for his wife and children, as his oldest son, Robert, later bitterly testified. But after the President's death, his admirers demanded pictorial assurance that their beleaguered leader had enjoyed the solace of home and hearth during these nightmare years-even if it had not been the case.

Invariably, the rush to produce such pictures produced errors, too. Some prints invented long-haired drummer boys to represent Tad, while mis-identifying the Brady image of Tad as his late older brother, Willie. Other printmakers haphazardly assembled their composites without adjusting each image to the proper proportion. Still others remained uncertain of the childrens' names. "Tad" was short for Thomas, but some image-makers identified him as "Thaddeus."

Long on love and short on accuracy, these prints added a personal dimension to the Lincoln image that no previous president had enjoyed since the time of Washington. The pictures were popular and powerful, and became best sellers.

With his assassination, Abraham Lincoln's critics-so

page 6

much in evidence pictorially throughout his Administration-were silenced. In his younger days, Lincoln had spoken of the "political religion" of the nation. Now he became its patron saint.

To depict the martyred President in a manner their audiences now demanded, engravers and li thographers turned to two symbols that Americans held most sacred: religion and George Washington. The sixteenth President was promptly made the equal of the first; engravers and lithographers showed them arm-in-arm bestr iding the re-united national map, or side-by-side as if they were contemporaries. Rel igious imagery showed Washington welcoming Lincoln into heaven. Print audiences decorated their homes with images that imagined a secular American afterworld, in which these two heroes reigned as gods.

In just five years, the graphic arts had introduced, embellished, and transformed the Lincoln image. They not only illustrated Lincoln's transfiguration, but arguably influenced it as well. The backwoods candidate for President about whom audiences knew so little in 1860 became, by 1865, in the words to the caption of one typically reverential post-assassination print : "The best beloved of the nation." The graphic arts had played a major role in that metamorphosis.

Harold Holzer is Senior Vice President of External Affairs at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He is the author/editor of 41 books on Abraham Lincoln. Harold currently serves as the Chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Foundation.

LINCOLN LORE Number 1897

Abraham Lincoln: The Image A special exhibition from the Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection

and the Indiana State Museum

During Abraham Lincoln's time, engravings and lithographs of political and military leaders, and of the events that made them famous, were aggressively marketed, eagerly collected and fondly displayed in family parlors around the nation. This exhibition analyzes Lincoln's portrayal in polit ical cartoons, campaign broadsides, photographs, lithographs and memorials from 1857 to 1870. Images were selected to illustrate how Lincoln was viewed by the people of his t ime and how he has been remembered since.

The exhibit was originally prepared tor the lincoln

,

Museum by guest curator

1 Harold Holzer, pictured

' at left . .

Introducing Mr. Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was not always the most famous and instantly recognizable American. Only in 1858, when the 49-year-old frontier lawyer ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate did those beyond the borders of llllinois first come to know Lincoln's name. This familiarity spread rapidly following the widely attended and commonly reported Lincoln-Douglas debates. Although he went on to lose the election that fall , the fame he won by sharing the limelight with Stephen Douglas transformed Lincoln into a legitimate contender for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination. True to the tradition of the day, after becoming the candidate in May 1860. Lincoln stayed at home and did no personal campaigning. These prints, in a sense, represented the nominee throughout the county.

For information regarding the rental of the exhibit please contact:

Friends of the Lincoln Collection of Indiana PO Box 11083 Fort Wayne IN 46855

E.H. Brown, engraver. Presidential Campaign Flyer, Chicago, 1860. Woodcut

The earliest mass-produced picture of Lincoln was printed for the 1860 Republican convention. The printmaker had to base the

J

image on a three-year-old photograph -with Lincoln's wildest hairstyle. The identification is in the handwriting of Lincoln's private secretary, John G. Nicolay.

D. Wentworth, Esq., lyricist; Blodgett & Bradford, publishers. "Honest Old Abe." Buffalo, New York, 1860. Sheet Music

Like the public, image-makers knew next to nothing about Lincoln when he became the nominee. They seized on scraps of personal history that neatly illustrated the party's emphasis on Lincoln's inspiring rise from log cabin origins.

SDXIi.UIIOJ

JJ.~ll~lt£ iY.Olrs..iJl~.:at ..

r.w..w~·liDi(fT&Ia...,. • • tttw. • ll IINTI1tt.lll'

page 7

Number 1897 LINCOLN LORE

John Chester Buttre. "Abraham Lincoln." New York, 1860. Mezzotint engraving

In a creative use of Mathew Brady's famous pose, this printmaker adapted a popular 1859 print of John C. Fremont (a fellow Republican and 1856 nominee for president). Using Fremont's body and lincoln's head, Buttre presented lincoln as a refined and dignified statesman.

Currier & lves, publisher. " Honest Abe Taking Them on the Half Shell." New York, 1860. Hand-colored lithograph (probably by Louis Maurer)

Political observers assumed the split in the Democratic Party into Northern and Southern factions made Lincoln's victory certain. This portrait was unusually daring for printmakers accustomed to slavishly copying photographs. Victorian gentleman wanted to appear earnest, and no one knows what lincoln's smile, or his teeth, really looked like.

Currier & lves, publisher. " Honorable Abraham Lincoln ... " New York, 1860. Lithograph

When Lincoln grew a beard following his election in 1860, the "Honest Abe" of campaign prints became the dignified "Uncle Abraham· of presidential portraiture. The public was so eager to see the new image

that many printmakers slapped wholly imagined whiskers on their outdated prints. The resulting pictures were often ridiculous, but, considering the many copies that survive, wildly popular.

Alexander Ritchie. "The First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation" New York, 1866. After a painting by Francis Carpenter. Steel plate engraving

When, in 1864, Lincoln signed on to receive the first proof copy of this engraving, he believed his print would arrive shortly. Although he had died by the time the engraving appeared, the image became the best-selling Lincoln print of all time.

page 8

LINCOLN LORE Number 1897

J.L. Magee, publisher. " Satan Tempting Booth to the Murder." Philadelphia, 1865. lithograph

The assassin, John Wilkes Booth, instantly emerged as a villain of satanic proportions -

shown as a coward receiving instructions and inspiration from the devil himself.

J .C. Buttre, publisher. "The Lincoln Family." New York, 1867. After a painting by Francis B. Carpenter. Mezzotint engraving

A photograph of the entire Lincoln family was never taken. Though the war left the President little time for family, after his death, admirers demanded pictorial assurance that their beleaguered leader had enjoyed the solace of home and hearth. Of the innumerable Lincoln family composite images that were produced, Buttre's engraving after Carpenter's painting is, arguably, the finest.

D.T. Wiest, lithographer; William Smith, publ isher. " In Memory of Abraham lincoln." Philadelphia, 1865. Handcolored lithograph

An 1801 print of ("L--::;wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiil the saints assisting Washington's ascension into heaven was slightly reworked to offer equal reverence to Lincoln. Admirers decorated their homes with secular images of an American afterwortd in which its two heroes reigned as gods.

-------1 The Collection

In 1905, a group of businessmen led by Arthur Hall founded The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company in Fort Wayne, Indiana. An admirer of Abraham Lincoln, Hall received permission from the president's son Robert to use the Lincoln name. Robert also provided a photograph he regarded as ·a very good likeness· that became the company's logo. In 1928 the company created the Lincoln Historical Research Foundation, which began collecting Lincoln artifacts, and opened to the public what would later become The Lincoln Museum in 1931. Over the course of 80 years, the collection grew to include a trove of archival materials and more than 30,000 artifacts, among them 7,000 prints and engravings.

In 2008, the Lincoln Financlal Group, now based in Philadelphia, ended its support for the museum in Fort Wayne. The Lincoln Financial Foundation needed to find an appropriate home for the internationally renowned collection. Following a rigorous nationwide search, the Foundation awarded the collection to a consortium of Indiana institutions headed by the Allen County Public Library (Fort Wayne) and the Indiana State Museum (Indianapolis} on behalf of the citizens of Indiana. Archival materials, documents and photographs are housed at ACPL; while three-dimensional objects, fine art and sheet music are kept at the Indiana State Museum.

page 9

Number /897 LINVOLN LORE

Interview with Ron White by Sara Gabbard

SG: You have achieved great success in writing about both Lincoln's life in general and his speaking and writing skills specifically. On the latter topic, is there an important and meaningful Lincoln speech which is frequent ly overlooked o r given only a cursory glance?

RW: One of Lincoln's most famous speeches in his own day was his so-called "Letter to l ames C. Conkling" of August 26, 1863. I say "so-called" because t his is the title given it by Editor Roy Basler in The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln published' in the 1950s, but I think the title throws us off the trail because this is really one of Lincoln's speeches. I choose to call it Lincoln's "Speech to the Springfield Rally" because the letter to Conkling would be read by Conkling to the largest Union rally of the war on September 3, 1863.

A modern criticism of Lincoln has been that even though he signed the Emancipation Proclamation, he did not have any real feeling for African-Americans. In this speech Lincoln began by acknowledging that many in his audience were critical of the Emancipation Proclamation.

The Proclamation made provision for the employment of black soldiers in the army, but Lincoln, along with most in the military, believed their use, if any, would not be as soldiers. During 1863 Grant and others convinced Lincoln that black soldiers had a strong role to play, not simply in denying their labor to the Confederacy, but as fighting men of great courage. Lincoln concludes with an emotional affirmation of black soldiers.

Peace does not appear so distant as it did. I hope

it will came soon, and came to stay; and sa came as to be worth the keeping in all future time. It will then hove been proved that, among free

men, there con be no successful appeal from the ballot to the bullet; and that they who take such appeal ore sure to lose their case, and pay the cost. And then, there will be some block men

who con remember that, with silent tongue, and clenched teeth, and steady eye, and well-poised bayonet, they hove helped mankind on to this great consummation; while, I fear,

there will be same white ones, unable to forget that, with malignant heart, and deceitful speech, they have strove to hinder it.

This speech became important in causing abolitionists to take a fresh look at Lincoln. Not long after, he received an invitation to speak at Gettysburg. Members of his cabinet thought he would decline-he declined

almost all invitations to speak outside of Washington up to this time-but he accepted. I believe he thought he needed to find more opportunities to speak about his vision for the nation.

SG: Conversely, is there a speech which has been overrated?

RW: Now this is tough. You are asking someone who wrote about "The Eloquent President" to find a speech that was not eloquent. I am not sure I can.

SG: While we look back t oday and marvel at Lincoln's use of language, what was the reaction of the crowds who heard him speak? Were some speeches received better than others?

RW: Aristotle, in his Treatise an Rhetoric, argues that ethos, credibility, what today we might call authenticity, is the key to persuasion.

We have many reports in Illinois that when audiences first encountered Lincoln they wondered about this gangly man with tousled hair whose clothes did not always look pressed and who spoke in a high tenor voice. But in these face-to-face encounters, audiences quickly discerned Lincoln's character and were thus drawn to his words.

We have often heard that the Gettysburg Address was not well received. According to his law associate, Ward Hill Lamon, Lincoln told him at Gettysburg, "that speech won't scour." But Lamon, not always reliable, made these comments some years later. Lincoln's address was not immediately popular in part because it took second fiddle to Edward Everett's long address. Some editors did not recognize its compelling vision.

It certainly is true that after Lincoln's death people looked back through the prism of his assassination to see more clearly the brilliance of his speeches.

SG: In your research for A. Lincoln: A Biography, what was t he most surprising new material which you found?

RW: First, I was able to take advantage of the completed findings of the Lincoln Legal Project that was only in its beginning stages when David Donald wrote his biography in 1995. Early drafts of A. Lincoln included more material on Lincoln the lawyer but my editor kept telling me, "Ron, this is not very sexy." Much of Lincoln's legal career-handling hundreds of debt cases-was not very sexy.

Second, most people are not aware of the new Lincoln documents as well as photographs which have turned up just in the last 10 years. Let me cite just two.

In 2004, a descendent of Ohio Republican Congressman Thomas Corwin walked into the Abraham Lincoln Bookshop in Chicago claiming she had a letter

page 10

LINCOLN LORE Number 1897

from lincoln to her great grandfather. Dan Weinberg authenticated this lost letter, written on October 9, 1859. lincoln, not yet thinking of himself as a candidate for president, offered his opinion on the stance that the Republican Party and candidate should take regarding slavery.

Do not misunderstand me as saying Illinois must hove on extreme antislavery candidate! I do not so mean. We must have, though, a man who recognizes that Slavery issue as being a living

issue of the day; who does not hesitate to declare slavery a wrong, nor to deal with it as such; who believes in the power, and duty of Congress to

prevent the spread of it.

In 2008, a man in longmont, Colorado, clicking on the library of Congress website, believed a photograph identified as the First Inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant, was really the Second Inauguration of lincoln. The photo showed too many soldiers and horses to be 1869. Carol Johnson, a curator, checked the three glass negatives, and declared, "These negatives add to our knowledge of this special event."

SG: Did the experience cause you to look at some aspects of his life from a different perspective than previously?

RW: Although I had written two earlier books on lincoln, writing the biography did cause me to look at aspects of his life through a different, more focused, lens.

I have long been intrigued by the process of lincoln's thinking, writing, and speaking. The Basler edition of The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln labels as "fragments" a whole series of notes and reflections intended for lincoln's eyes only. I think these fragments are a key to understanding lincoln. Some, to be sure, are the drafts on issues like slavery that will appear later in his public speeches. Others, like the "Meditation on the Divine Will," discovered by John Hay after Lincoln's death-Hay gave the undated reflection a title-reveal an aspect of lincoln's thinking-his own faith journey-that the public lincoln had not revealed at the time he wrote it. I believe the Meditation is the chief intellectual resource for his remarkable Second Inaugural Address where lincoln will speak about the role of God in the Civil War.

I became impressed by the way lincoln grew into his role as Commander-in-Chief. Checking books out of the Library of Congress, he taught himself how to fulfill his ill-defined role in the Constitution. He gave more time to this part of his job description than he ever imagined-and so did I in writing about it.

SG: How should we approach the sesquicentennial of lincoln's presidency and the Civil War? What topics need to be re-visited?

RW: We already are. The topic of lincoln and slavery is endlessly fascinating. It is disturbing that the recent Pew poll on the causes of the Civil War found that the majority of people under 30 believe the main cause of the Civil War was states' rights.

I think the enormity of the Civil War tends to eclipse other actions of lincoln as President-such as his strong backing for building the transcontinental railroad.

lincoln, looking back at the Federalists and the Jeffersonian Republicans, came to believe that the two parties had about changed places by his time-if the Jeffersonians argued for a limited government, the Republicans argued for a strong central government. I wonder what lincoln would think about Republicans and Democrats today. Casting aside the criticisms of libertarians or neo-Confederates-that lincoln is the devil incarnate as the architect of a dictatorial presidency-we do need to look at the conception of the role of government held by lincoln and the Republicans. In our answer to this complex question we need to be aware of the way the Civil War, just as World War II, augmented the size and scope of government.

SG: Are you planning other lincoln-related books?

RW: I am writing a comprehensive biography of Ulysses 5. Grant that will be published by Random House. This biography will be Lincoln-related because I plan to spend more time exploring the relationship between Lincoln and Grant than has been the case in Grant biographies. They had a relationship, in the sense that each man was taking the measure of the other, even before they finally met. After March 8, 1864, they saw each other on several occasions and their mutual admiration grew. Another aspect of this is Grant's conception of his role as politician and president after lincoln's assassination.

I have no plans at the moment to write another book on lincoln.

Ronald C. White Jr. is the author of: A. lincoln: A Biography Lincoln's Greatest Speech The Eloquent President

page II

Numbt.r 1897 LINCOLN LORE

Li11coln and TanetJ and the Leadership Lessons of Ex Parte Merryman

On the first floor of tire U.S. Supreme Court building I here are ht'O very impressive toood-pmreled conference rooms. Tire Court generally uses the rooms to lros/ group visits and for ceremonial purposes. Tire rooms are situated across a /railway from each other in a wing of tire building. TI1ey are called t11e East and West confi!rence rooms. T11ey are accessible pnst a metal detector on the left side of the Great Hall facing the Court Chamber and through a bronud metal gate that must be unlocked by a Supreme Court police officer. Inside each room are large heavy inlaid tables mrd comfortable chairs whiclr can be a"anged for meetings mrd presentatim1s. One notable feature of tile rooms are the port rails of all of /Ire past Clrief justices. T11e portraits are displayed on the wood-paneled walls of each conference room. Most prominently displayed, of course, is tile portrait of Chiq justice jolm Mars/ra/1, who occnpies a spot directly abow the omate marble mantle of a fireplace at tire focal point of the £as/ Conference Room.

71re portraits of tire various other justices from Jolm Jay to Warren Burger and now, I assn me, William Relmquist, are arrayed arormd the room. lnclrtding Chief justice john Roberts, seventeen individuals have served as Chief Justice of the Suprm1e Court of the United Stales. The portraits of half of the sixteen past-Chiefs are displayed in one room and tile otl1er half in the other. One portrait, itself apparently more somber I iran /11e others occupies a place of conspicuously less

Chief Justice Roger B. T ooey (1177·t864) served on the United

States Supreme Court from 1836 until his death. (LFA.0335)

prominence than the others. Seemingly in a permanent sltadow in one comer of tire East Conference room is /Ire portrait of a dour lookhtg frail old ma11 dressed in black. II is tire portrait of Roger Brooke Taney. While present with a group visiti11g the Court and meeti11g witlt a Cllrrmt justice in tltal room in 2003, the justice described the portraits for tire court visitors. Upon coming to Taney's portrait, lite justice said, "mrd tltere is Taney, where he belongs, in lite shadows. "Ill

Another current Justice, in a question/answer session following a lecture at a law school was asked what former Cltief Justice Ire would most/ike to have a conversation witlr. He said lte would like to meet witlr Roger Taney who, he said, ill Dred Scott torotc tire "most disastrous opinion in Supreme Court /tis tory. • The justice then said, "I'd like to hmJt a conversntio11 witlt him before he did that.· 121

The co11n11elll served to collfirm Taney's ignomi11ious place ill

page 12

American ltistory. Today, Uncol11 is cottsisteutly ranked, along with George Washington, as one of our greatest Presidents. Among the ma11y honors bestowed on/rim include streets;, many cities named for /rim, elementary scltools bear Iris name, and a grand monumml to him dominates the Wasltington, D.C., landscape. For his pari, Taney's monume11t in Washingto11, D.C., a portrait displayed in lite shadows, is for less amspicuous.

Per/tops the difformce in trmtmellt by history is warra11/ed. Few would conlettd /Ira/ Dred Scotttoas not a disastrous decisiott. But, in their closest professiollallegal encout~ler, where lite judiciary, under /Ire leadership of Cltief Jus lice Taney, had a chance to measure the legitimacy of executive actiofl by President Linco/11, it may have bee11 Taney who had the better legal argumettl. This paperexamiltes the illleraclion of Talley and Lincoln itt £x Parte Merrymatt atrd co1tcludes tltot while Justice Taney made a compelli11g argumml ott lite limits of executive power under the Constitution, he rmforttmalely focused 011 tire exercise of /I rat power without giving adequate consideration to the specific context of lire executive act and gave too little weight to lite power of tire President as Commander in Chief to preserve tlw union in lime of rebelliott. A 11ative of Marylattd, living with family i11 Baltimore while the cirCIIit court was itt session and heari11g £x Parte Merryman, Taney, hod he fully considered those matters, might have upheld tire Presideut's act in s11spending habeas corpus.

One of Cl1ief juslice Taney's biograpl1ers spoke of lunv alike he and Lincoln were. Walker Lewis wrote tl1at both wtre Niall, gaunt, 1mprepossessing, sensitive, introspective, kindly, considerate, unassumi11g; eac/1 l111d a will of iron, a rigid code of personal integrity, a11d a strong sense of lwmallity. n(J)

Lewis suggests tl111t under different circumstances, the two men might have jou11d IIIIlCh in COIIIIIIOnJ4) In fact, it was said ofllim that he inherited his fat/let's temper but little elseJSI Taney's jotl1er, however, did apparently thi11k that l1e slumld go into tl1e professioll of lmv and one thi11g that he and U11coln did h111H! i11 common was t/1111 they tvere superb lawyers and tvere recognized as suc/1 by tl1eir conleiiiJ10rariesJ61

At t11e beginning of the Civil War, the Lincoln Admi11istrntio11 was concerned that Maryland might secede from tl1e Union and join the Confederacy. 111e Administration's concems were tvell-founded. Many in Marylm1d sympathized wit/1 tl1e Confederacy. 111ose sympathies took the fonn ofvioleut actious in April 1861, wllm union soldiers passed through Baltimore on their way to support tl1e defeuse ofWasllingtoll. Civilians and soldiers tvere killed as riots occurred wl1e11 soldiers from Massacl111setts marched tl~rough the city to board a train that would take them to tl1e city ofWashingtou, where, at t11e time, tl1e II ~real of rebel attack was wry real. 111e secession of Marylm1d would inflict a severe bl0111 on administration efforts to suppress tile rebellion and restore tl1e union. Maryland's strategic location North and East of Wasl1ington made it vital that it remain i11 tl1e Union.

LINCOLN LORE

]o/111 Merryman tons an officer in the Maryland militia. Whm tl1e governor of lilt state orderttd that railroad bridges through tile state be destroyed, Merryman participated in tlu1 exeCitt ion of that ordttr. It was 111111 conduct the led to l1is arrest on 25 May 1861. by Union military authorities. As Merryman explained in/lis petition for writ of habeas corpus filed 011 26 May 1861,

he was roused from his bed by soldiers without a tonrrallt at about 0200 l1011r5 a11d taken to Fort McHeury wl1ertt l1e was corifined. Fort McHmry foil undttr tl1e command of General George Cadtonlader who, in civilian life, had been a praclicing attomey.(7) In his petilio11, Merrymmt claimed his arrest was unjustified and requested that Clliefjustice Ta11ey issue a writ of l111beas corpus commanding General Cadwalader to produce Merryman before Taney and establish good cause for the arrest. 111e writ was deliwred to Taney ill Wasl1ingto11 but, i11 evidence of the import Ta11e:y saw i11 the matter, he departed tl1at some day for Baltimore and sclreduled a heari11gjor tl1e 11ext day.

Chiefjustice Taney issued an order directing 1/wt Cadwalader appear before him with Merryman and explai11 the circumsta11ces of his arrest. Cadtoolader did 110t appear but gave 11otice to Ta11ey that Merryma11 tons bei11g charged with various acts of I reason and TilliS part of an organized effort to e11gnge in rebellion agaiust the U11ited States. He fur tiler told Taney 111111 he was "duly authorized by the President of tl1e United States in such cases to suspend the writ of lwbeas corpus for the public safety. NIB/

page 13

Num/Jer 1897

This may have bee11 the first time Chief Justice Taney became aware of the President's delegatiou of tl1e authority to military autl1orities to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. Still, an educated mall, Taney was surely aware of tl1e startli11g eve11ts a11d civilu11rest ill Baltimore, as well as t11e siguijicn11ce of tlwt city and state i11 the early stages of tl1e rebellio11. 111 tmy event, Ta11ey did 1101 co11cede ll1al Cadronlader could appropriately disregard the Court's order to produce Merryma11. Ta11ey issued a writ l1oldi11g Cadwalader ;, contempt for not producing the body of Merryma11 and ordered his arrest. 1111! Marshall was ordered to serve lite writ on Cadwalader but wlum he retumed lte erplai11ed 111111 he could not because he lwd been denied entry at Fort McHenry. Chief justice Ta11ey, recognizing tl1e futility of continued efforts by tlw Marshall, an11ounced from ll1c be11ch that the officer was excused from doi11g anything more to produce Merryma11 or Cadronlader. Taney then atmounced that tl1e Presidmt could not suspend the privilege of tl1e writ of habeas corpus, 11or autl10riu a military officer to do so. He theu held that Cadwalader had 110 right to arrest and l1old Merryma11. He directed that Merryma11 sl1ould be released immediately. Fi11ally, he stated 1/wt, ill order 111111 llis oral opi11io11 1101 be mislllulerstood, he would issue a writte11 opini011 011 the matter. And, in a sli11gi11g rebuke to Presideut Lincol11, he stated l1e would have it presented to l1im so tlwt "he might perform his constitutional duty, to enforce tl1e laws by securing obedience to tl1e process of the U11ited States."

Number 1897

Oti~f justice Taney issued /tis opinion in Ex Part~ Merryman on june 1, 1861. lntm:stingly, It~ issued it as tire Otief justice of the Supreme umrt, not as n justice sitting in Circuit Court in Baltimore, as lte actually wns. I could 1101 determitte if that was the ttormal way Supreme Court just ices issued opinions whettltearittg cases in their circuits. If it was not, Tnttey may ltaue thought that tltnl lite opittiott carried more weight if it 1oos issued itt It is capacity as the Chief justice sillittg itt chambers.

The opittiottwas relatively cottcise. Tattey explained lite facts attd poitttedly mmtiotted tltal before lite ltenrittg ott Merrymatt 's petitiott for lite writ of habeas corpus, no official ttotice /tad beert provided to tlte cottrls or the public that tlte President was claiming lite power to suspettd the writ nttd tltnl lte 1uas exercising if. Despite an homage to the proper respect due tlte President's ltiglt office, itt n somewhat condescendittg mamter I /tnt dtnracteriu:d ttlltelt of the opinion, the Otief justice tltett ittdicated that he lisletted to the admittistration's claim of tire power witlt some surprise berouse, as Ire indicated, everyone ktrew tltal "lite privilege of lite writ could 1101 be suspended except by act of Cottgress. •(9)

Chief justice Tattey poittted out tltat even Pn'Sidenf jefferson, rather tltatt acting ott Iris owntultell addressing tire grave cottcems raised by the alleged treasottous cottspirncy of Aaron Burr, asked Congress to suspend /Ire writ. Evett if jefferson believed tire public safety demanded it, nccordittg to Taney, it 1005

recogttiud tltnt tire Presidettl did 1101 /rave lite power to suspettd it. He poittled out tlrnl tire power to suspend lite writ is fotmd itt Art. I,§ 9 and lltnf tltal article is devoted to

UNCOLN LORE

/Ire legislature nttd "lrns ttol tire slightest referettc~ to the Executive depnrlmmt. •uot Taney ittdicated that lite Framers were very guarded about cottferrittg power on tire Executive for fear it could be abused. Taney cited Ettglislt legal precedettl and Blackstone's commentaries atrd argued tlrnf wufer Ettglislr law the writ of lrnbcns corpus was the most sigttiftcmrt protectiott against lite dattger of arbitrary usurpation of individual freedom by lite Ettglish equivalent of tire Executive, the Croton. His argument tuas

essentially tlrnt ktr01oiug lire purpose of tire writ of lrnbeas corpus, tire Framers ttever would /rave put tire pmoer to suspettd it itt tire /rands of tire party wlro could most endanger liberty, lite Executiue.

After a recitntiott 011 English law and precedent, Chief justice Tmrey played lire equivalent of constifutiounllnw trump cards and cited justice joseplt Story and Chief justice jo/111 Marshall as authority for Iris opirrion. I believe it is fair to SllY lira I 1/rose hoo individuals are today, arrd were 1/terr, ginrrts of corrstitutiouallnw. Torrey cited Story's Commettlaries orr lire Coustitutiorr for lite proposition 1/tat Cougri!SS ltas lite exclusive power to determine wltetlter in cases of irrvnsiorr or reltellion, lite public safety requires tire suspettsion of lite writ of ltabeas corpus. He cited Mars/tall's opirriou in the lrabens proceedings of Bollmnrr arrd S1uartwout, two of Aaron Burr's corrfederates, 1/rnt the power to determirre wlretlter public Silfety required susperrsion of tire writ rested witlt Corrgri!SS.

17tere seems little doubt 1/rnt ifTmrey tOlls citing Story and Marshall correctly, Iris opinion deserved some

page 14

credibility. It may be 1/rat part of tire opirrion in particular tltat led some legal scholars to firrd merit irr Taney's views that Presidmt Lirrco/rr /tad acted wrcoustitutioually in permitting military officers to suspend lire writ. 17re opittiott corrcluded by givirrg a dire waming that if ltnbcns corpus cntt be usurped by a tttilitnry autltority ns if ltnd beerr itt Merryman's case, the freedom of the people oft he Urrited Stni<'S existed at the will mrd pleasure of Army offirers. Firrnlly, Ire repealed Iris smug detenrrirrnti01r, as previously expressed 1vlrenlte irritially amrormced his opiniorr from tire bendt, to smd Iris opinion nrrd all tire proceedings to lite Presiderrt so 1/rnt he could do Iris constitutiorrnl duty to fake care flrnt the laws be fnitlrfully executed.

Of course, what is never ruentioued itt Torrey's opinion in Ex Parte Merryman is 1/rat, nf tire time, Corrgress ruas rrol itt session and the President, as tire only capable govemmerrt etrlity, was tryirrg to addri!SS a very real rebelliorr.

If Taney 1uas tryirrg to prompt some raslr renctiorr from Presidmt Lincoln with lite opirriorr, he 1uas disappoirrted. Still, for Iris part, one could assume that Taney wrote from principle nrrd lOllS moore flrnl he migllf face some persorraf consequences from/tis opittiorr nttd criticism of tire Administ ratiorr.

Taney's firs t biographer, Samuel Tyler, itt arr extremely ndmirirrg portrait, noted that as Torrey left his daughter's home irr Baltimore to deliver lire opirriou in Ex Parte Merrymarr, he commertled llrnt it 1005 likely that Ire 1oou/d be imprisoned in Fort McHertry before niglrl, but 1/rat lte lOllS goirrg to Court "to do Iris duty. "till Wltetlrer

l1e was sincere or not in l1is expression of personal concem is another question. Taney, again, 11/QS a very intelligent man and, by that lime, probably l1ad enough awareness of Lincoln and l11e circ1m1Siances to hnve some confidence thai any personal danger of being arrested IIIIlS

exaggerated. He wasn't specifically fomenti~tg rebellion and, unlike Merryman, Ire wasn't intentionally trying to undermine federal efforts to den/with a rebellion by destroying telegraph lines and railroad bridges. He UHIS simply doing his job and deciding a mse brought before him. That said, Taney's opinion could hnve only served to arouse even greater hostility i11 Maryland towards the federal government and could hnve been used by Confederates as n men11s to further rationalize t/JC • rigllteous1wss" of l11eir secession. T/1e idea bei11g tlml a Lincoln ndministralio11 was willing to oppress individual rigllts ns well as slate prerogatives and the secessionist's rebellious nets were justified.

In regards to Administration efforts to prevent Mnrylm1d from seceding, the opinion co11ld not have been helpful. Still, in terms of a trade-off. the security promoted by quickly arresting and detai11ing individuals directly hindering federal government efforts to quell n rebellio11 and prohibiting their resort to civil courts likely l1ostile to tlwse efforts, 11n1st have outweighed, itt Lincoln's mind, the danger posed by a11 adverse opinio11 from Chief justice Taney.

Preside11l Lincoln's response to the Ex Parte Merryman opinion UI<IS not rash but, rnt11er, very pragmatic. He initially did nothirrg to directly address it. For Lirrco/11, Taney's decisio11 i11 Ex Parte Merrymnrr may

LINCOLN LORE

hnve corrfinrred n concem he expressed in l1is first inaugural address given less tl1an three morrths earlier. In 1/mt speech he said tl1at if the policy of the government on vital fimctiorrs is to be irrroocnbly fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court , the instn11t tlwy are made, tl1e11, "the people will have ceased to be their ow11 mlers, hnvi11g to that exte11t practically n-signed tl1eir goverm11e111 i11to that hn11ds of that emi11ent tribu11al. "tW He 11/QS

rejerri11g, of course, to the Dred Scott case, a case that, probably to Ta11ey's chagrir~, l~nd beer~ a sig11ifica11t issue i11 ll1e 1860 Presidential tlectio11 campaign. But, Lincoln's tl1oughls on the matter could have ap11lied to Merryma11. /11 a time of 11ali011nl crisis, Li11col11 surely doubted that t11e Supreme Court could n/Jsolutely bi11d the govemme111 from adequate respor~se to a situntio11 that tl~rentelled the very COIIIinua11ce of the govemment itself

lt1 1/Jal SQme address Lincoln spoke of auoiding hasty decisions. He SQid:

"Notlli11g valuable can be lost by Inking time. If there be an object to lmrry a11y of you, in holl1aste, to a step whic/r you would 11ever lake deliberately, that object will be frustrated by taki11g time; but 110 good object car~l~efruslrnted by ii. "IIJI

Heedi11g Ids ow11 advice, over a monl/1 after it was lw11ded dow11, Linco/11, wit/wut ever publicly commenting directly 011 Taney's opinion in Ex Parle Merryman, made reference to l11e situatio11 inllis Message to Congress i11 Special Sessio11 011 july 4, 1861. In tlmt speecl1 he gave Co11gress a detailed accounting on eve11ts at Fort Sumler, 1/w legality of secessio11, and addressed Iris actions

page 15

Number 1897

as Preside11t, i11cluding a calling forth of l11e militia, prior to the reconvening of Congress. In particular, Presidml Lincoln addressed his autl1oriZJJtion to military authorities to suspmd the privilege of l11e writ of lrabeas corpus. Witlwut ever specifically ide11tifying the Merryman case, l1e recog11ized tlwt the legality of l1is nrlllrorizntion had been "questiorwd" am/that the atte111io11 of tl1e cou11try had been drawn to the idea 1/wl tl1e individual who is constitulio11ally "s1oom to 'lake care that tl1e lmus be fnitlifully exectded' slwnld not himself violate them. "11•1lnjecli11g COIIIexl, he explained the weak logic of thai argume11l by recog11izing that i11 n rebellio11 all laws were in danger of bei11g violated and the Executive, ill the limited suspension of 011e, II/IlS

trying to see tlml all tl1e rest 100u/d be faithfully executed. Sigllificantly, he said, "are all the laws /Jut one to go unexecuted, and tl1e Govemmer~l itself go to pieces, lest tlwt oue be violaled?"ll5/ With that statement, l1e captured t11e essence of tl1e problem he 1uas deali11g tuitl1 and 011e 01ief justice Taney had neglected to ackno-..uledge.

Abse11t a developing rebellion, Preside111 Li11colnmigllt have agreed wit/1 the arguments on tl1e limits of executive power put forth by Taney in Merryman. The fact remains, as Li11coln slated inllis Firsl l11nugural, as tl1e 11etv President he was Inking office ill a time of"greal n11d peculiar difficulty." As he said, "{a/ disruption of the Federal U11ion, heretofore only mmaced, is nmo fomlidably attempted. " 1161 At that i11auguration, Justice Ta11ey, t/1ere to administer tl1e oath of office, sat literally n frw feet from President Lincoln. He IIIIlS fully aware of the

Number 1897

releVtml facts that he chose to iguore or marginalize, iu Merryman's case. The Union toas beiug tom apart in May of1861. Putting aside that iuCOIIPtnielll circrtmstance, Ta11ey's opinion has great merit.

Two years Inter, in respouding to criticism from Albany Democrats over tire arrest alld military trial of Clement Vallandiglram, a vocal oppouerrt of Federal efforts i11 Ohio, President Liucoln offered further justification for lire decisioin to suspe11d habeas corpus. L;,rcol11' s reasoning in the Vallandiglram case was equally applicable to Merryman. Tire Albany Democrats were upset OPtr the arrest aud trial by military lribuual of Vallmrdiglram, a former Congressman from Ohio mrd strong supporter of state's rights and vocal oppo11mtto the Federal cause i11 the Civil War.l!l) Vallandiglram had been arrested on tire order of General Ambrose Burrrside, Comma11der of the Departmeut of Ohio. Liucoln professed a belief that certain proceedings were amstitutional when, in cases of rebel/io11 or invasion, tire public safety requires tlrem, but, those proceedings would not be constitutio11al whm, in the absence of rebelliou or immsiou, the public safety did uot require them. His poi11t tuns that lire application of Cons I it utio11al protections tUfls different in time of invasion or rebellion tha11 in limes of peace a11d pr1blic security. (lSI As Lincoln explained, among the reasons that Vnllnudiglram 1oas arrested 1oas because Ire, like Mtrrymau before /rim, IOOS laboring to leave lire rebellion without au adequate military force to suppress it. Val/andigham, like Merryman, was "warring upon the military, and tlris gDPt tire military constitutional

LINCOLN LORE

jurisdiction to lay hauds upon him.mJ

lu addition to his intelligence, compassion, and determi11ation, I believe one of the greatest attributes that Liuco/u had as a leader was what we col/ today an ability to see tire big picture. Tlmt ability penni/led him to act pragmatically. I think lirnt Lincoln, as a lawyer who rmderstood the Constitution and, as a studeut of history, cherished the principle of the rule of law. His failil in the rule of law lUllS strong but his co11jideuce in the Supreme Court had been shaken by its decision in lire Dred Scott case. He had respect for tl1e Court, but no/much failil in 01ief justice Ta11ey. Lincoln understood that if Ire did not lake decisit~e action in Maryland in the Spring of1861, that key state miglrt also secede and join the corifederacy. T/1e direct COIISCIJIICIICe of that would be the 11eed to move the Federal capital from Washi1Jg1011, D.C. Tile poterrtial detrime111 tlrat move fXIsed to efforts to preserot' the Unio11 1uns profomld. Lincoln wrderslood that. 1JTm1ey rmderstood ll1e concept, Ire did 1101 afford that likelihood npprnpriate cousideralio11.

l11 /he Spri11g of1861, Preside111 U11coln took decisive aclio11s 1/ra/, at a critical junct11re in lilt early days of the Civil War, might have preve11ted Maryla11d from secedi11g. Chief /11stice Ta11ey, nutl1or of the regrettable Dred Scott opinion that, whatever l1is i11tent i11 drafting it, served to furlirer divide a troubled natio11 aver the iss11e of slavery, tuns n11tagonistic to those efforts. As he ack11owledged in his First Inaugural, Lincoln look office in a time of great n11d peculiar difficlllfy. 111ere was 110 precederrt to guide fire £xec11tive on how to coustitutionally address a

page 16

civilwr. While it seems accepted today that in time of inlNlSion or rebellion, if tire public safety dema11ds, only Co11gress has the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus, thatquestio11 lrad not been ruled 011 by n co1trf prior to 1861. U11der the circumsla11ces, it would be hard to label as 1mreaso11able President Liucol11's determination that ill fl1e i11cipient days of a rebellion, wl1ere the public safety req11ired it, he C011ld S11spe11d tire writ of habeas corpus. Tlrat is particularly true whe11 danger to the gOPtmmenf lUllS imminent and Congress tuns 11ot iu session. Tire perso11allegacy Chief j11stice Taney shaped with his opinion in Dred Scot I was not redeemed by his opi11io11 in Ex Parte Merryman. He might have been able to accomplish a great deal of good i11 lira/ case by higlrlighti11g fire extraordi11nrily diffic~tlt choices facing tl1e Admi11istratio11 i11 a lime of crisis, and, perhaps, wlrile tire issue was11't directly before llim,llOI he miglrl have commented 011 file illegality of secessio11. He did neither. While he may 1101 have 1uanted to preserve slavery, consideri11g his landed aristocratic backgrormd, Iris bias a11d sympaflries were probably shaded more with Virgi11ia a11d the So11flr than they were with fire Li11coln Administratioll.lll) On tire contrary, wlreuthe COlllltry most needed a11 insightflllleader capable of appropriately balancing decisive11ess mrd pragmatism, it found /rim i11 Abraham Lincoln. In the mrly days of the IIN!r, it is difficult to co11ceiw of all tire difficulties with which Li11col11 had to deal. 011e of those difficulties tvas Chief Justice Roger B. Taney. Tlreir relative positions i11 history are now fixed. For Clrief justice Ta11ey, that is mifortwlllle.

LINCOLN LORE Number 1897

(1) Au1llots visit to Supreme Court wi1h USMA cadets. March 2003 (2) Jason Plautz, "Chief Justice Roberts Displays Wrt at Law

Sd'loolle<:IUre." Nc<1h by Nc<1hwestem (2 Feb 2007) hllp1/www.nortlbynol1hwe.com'2007Al2116901 c:tlel~isplays-wit-at.Jaw-sc:hool-ledl.we aooessed, 1 January 2011).

(3) Walker lewis. Wllhout Fear or Favor, A Biography of Olief Justice Roger Brooke Taney, (Boston, Houghton Mifflin and Company, 1965), 445.

(4) Ibid. (5) James Simon, Lincoln and Taney: Slavery, Secession, and

lha President's War P~Y>Vers. (New York: Simon and Shuster Paperbacks, 2006), 6.

(6) Ibid. (7) Coilcidentally, Cadwalade(s brother was a Federal District

Court Judge in Philadelphia, PA. (8) Geoeral Cadwalade(s response to Chief Justice Taney's

(9) (10) (11)

(12)

(13) (14) (15) (16) (17)

(18) (19) (20)

(21)

Writ ot Habeas Cotpus, 27 May 1861. in Basler, Roy P .. AbnJham Lh:ofn, His Speedoes and WrtiJg (585). Ex Parte Menyman, 17 F. Cas. 144 (1861). Ibid. Sarooe! Tyler, Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney, LLD., (Baltimore: John Murphy & Co., 1872), 427. Basler. Abraham Uncoln, His Speeches and Writing. Firsllnaugural Address . 585. Ibid. at588. Ibid. at600. Ibid. at601. Ibid. at 582. Vallandigham's anest and subsequent trial by military tribunal is. arguably, more constitutiooally troubiW1g than 1lle MerTyman cese. however, 1lle Supreme Court. asserting a lade of~. relused to hear 1lle cese. Ibid. at 705. Ibid. at 704. Jusl as 1lle issue of Alrican-American citizenship had no1 been direcdy belore him in Ored Scolt lewis, at 441. PertinenUy, lewis wrote. "In Maryland and 111e so-called border slates. slavery was on the way out Nor did Taney and those who thought as he did wish to prolong it What they wanted to preserve was their accustomed way or life and the right to conlrollheir own affairs."

Co fo11ef Mark L. Toole is statio11ed at t ire Uuited States Military Academy.

17ris paper tuns turiHen for a course titled Abralram Liuco/11 aud Leadersh ip: A Shrdy

ill Comma11d aud Sta tesmausllip. Tire class tuns taught at tile NafJa l War College

by Liucolu au t/tor Fra11k Williams.

Perspectives on the Civil War: An Essa Review

By Myron A. Marty 1861: THE CIVIL WAR AWAKENING:

Adam Goodheart: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011: 481 pages.

LINCOLN AND CITIZENS' RIGHTS IN CIVIL WAR MISSOURI: BALANCING F'REEDOM AND SECURITY:

Dennis Boman: LSU Press, 2011: 356 pages.

Observing the sesquicentennial anniversary of the American Civil War (20 11 ·2015) gives us a chance to refresh our understanding of events that claim a permanent place in our collective memories. In the years between such milestone ann1versaries as this, Civil War devotees, especially those most interested in the military aspects of the War, do the~r part to keep interest in the War alive by participating in "roundtable discussions• and reenacting battles. Scholars use the celebration of anniversaries to offer insightful perspectives to remembrances of the conflict. The books considered here complement one another very well, although they are starkly different in purpose, style, and content.

Adam Goodheart's 1861: The Civil War Awakening is a selective review of major events and characters across the country in the years leading to the War and in the first half of 1861. Written in a conversational style, Goodheart embellishes his narrative by seeming to say, from time to time, "that reminds me of a story.• Such stories, including some appearing in endnotes, add Immeasurably to the appeal of the book.

Dennis Boman's more narrowly focused Lincoln and Citizens' Rights in Civil War Missouri is a workmanlike account of nitty-gritty aspects of the bloody conflict In Missouri for the duration of the war. lincoln's dealings with citizens' r ights, Boman asserts, are revealed mainly through orders issued to his commanders in the state, particularly Nathaniel Lyon, Henry W. Halleck, and John C. Fr6mont. Lincoln's inclination, he writes, •was to leave the details of war to the generals and their subordinates as much as possible," but in cnt1cal situations he found it necessary to intervene, for as a border state, Missouri, like Kentucky, was v1tal to the Union's efforts.

Goodheart describes the Civil War as •not just a Southern rebellion but a nationwide revolution-fought even from within the seceding

page 17

Number 1897 LINCOLN LORE

states-for freedom." The War began, he asserts, "with the raising of a Union flag, not the firing of a Confederate shot." The South's protracted rebellion failed, and "the Confederacy was fated to become a historical dead end," but the revolution, driven by progressive impulses "to create new freedoms" and by conservative tendencies seeking "to preserve a cherished legacy, reinvented America."

By telling stories about events in locales where issues between North and South were contested, Goodheart gives readers a sense of what it was like to have been there. For example, after a brief account of Abraham lincoln's election as president and his virtual invisibility in subsequent months, he turns to anti-slavery sentiments and actions in the Boston area and to a slave auction in the nation's capital. Attempts, then and now, to deny that slavery was the central issue in the conflict meet a convincing rebuttal in Goodheart's stories.

The War began in the Charleston, South Carolina harbor, where Union forces, directed by leaders in Washington, sought unsuccessfully to preserve Fort Sumter as a federal base, while the Confederacy battled to take control of the island fortress. Gripping accounts of the diplomatic and military maneuvers surrounding this contest reveal that while this might have been seen as a quick and bloodless victory for the secessionists, raising the Confederate flag there turned out to be, Goodheart writes, their •worst strategic blunder."

lincoln saw it that way, too, remarking to a confidant: "They attacked Sumter-it fell, and thus, did more service than it otherwise could." But why and how? Perhaps, Goodheart muses, there was an explanatory power in the flags themselves and their wordless symbolism. Citizens could see a flag as representing their sentiments, no matter the diverse feelings of the flag's supporters. In any event, lincoln's call for 75,000 volunteers after the fa II of Fort Sumter produced a rush of men far exceeding that number. They were eager to fight to preserve the flag of the United States.

Goodheart describes the first soldiers in New York marching proudly down Broadway "with heavy dirks and bowie knives tucked into each belt for hand-to-hand fighting, and cigars in each headband for the more leisurely hours of soldiering." In St. Louis, writes Goodheart, a group of German women, not wanting to be mere onlookers while their men dedicated themselves "with joyful courage to the service of the Fatherland,"

made a flag, "stitched together out of heavy silk with stars of silver thread." It was for a regiment of Missouri volunteers. Across its red and white stripes they painted in gold letters: "Il l. Regiment Missouri Volunteers. Lyons Fahnenwacht. • "Lyon's Color Guard" was a new unit under the command of Franz Sigel, a German immigrant.

Nathaniel Lyon would command Union forces for a few months in Missouri. He "embodied in his five-foot-five frame nearly everything the Southerners loathed and feared," Goodheart remarks, and he "hated the South, detested its authoritarian institutions, and tasted bile at the very thought of secessionist treason." Even though some called him mentally unbalanced, Lyon inspired loyalty in his troops. On August 10, 1862, in an ill-advised battle with secessionists at Wilson's Creek in southwest Missouri, he became the first Union general to die in the Civil War. During those months, incidentally, two future heroes, William Tecumseh Sherman and Ulysses S. Grant, were serving as a trolley car executive in St. Louis and a luckless clerk.

Throughout the book, Goodheart dramatizes key points by following the adventures of singular figures and citing succinct quotations from them. One such is James Garfield, a young professor at the Western Reserve Eclectic Institute (Hiram College today). He met lincoln when the president-elect's train, en route to Washington, stopped in Columbus, Ohio, on February 13, 1861. Puzzling lines in lincoln's lackluster speech to the state legislature (e.g., "[T)here is nothing going wrong .... We entertain diHerent views upon political questions, but nobody is suffering anything''), disappointed Garfield and many others. But that did not dampen his pleasure in meeting Lincoln at a reception that evening. He wrote to a friend that lincoln's "evident marks of indomitable will" gave him "great hopes for the country." Driven by his own indomitable will, he became a brigadier general in the Union army and commanded troops at Shiloh and Chickamauga. Garfield left the army •at Lincoln's behest," to be elected to the United States House of Representatives, where he was a staunch supporter of emancipation and civi l rights.

Another captivating figure is Elmer Ellsworth, who, seemingly coming from nowhere, attracted considerable attention, including that of Lincoln. He led a handpicked corps of sixty volunteers in sensational, morale-building maneuvers he learned from a French immigrant who had served in an elite

page 18

LINCOLN LORE Number 1897

f1ghtmg force, known as Zouaves. C1rcumstances soon allowed h1m to form a spec1al fnendship with the President. So close was the1r relationship that when Ellsworth was shot after removing a Confederate flag from the roof of a hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, his death affected Lincoln • like no other soldier's in the four years that followed.'

Jessie Benton fremont (1824·1902), daughter of

Sen. Thomas Hart Benton ondwifeof

John C. fremont, was a writer and reformer.

(OC·0594)

Yet another is Jessie Fr~mont, the wife of John C. Fr~mont, the Union military commander in Missouri. She traveled by tram to Washington to protest Lincoln's countermandmg her husband's edict "summarily liberating all slaves m the state belonging to masters who aided the rebel cause.' Lincoln was adamant, and offended her by remarking, "You are quite a female politician." Years later she wrote: •strange, isn't it, that when a man expresses a conviction fearlessly, he is reported as having made a trenchant and forceful statement, but when a woman speaks thus earnestly, she is reported as a lady who has lost her temper.·

Toward the end of the book, Goodheart provides an astute crit1que of Lincoln's f1rst message to Congress on July 4, 1861. New to the presidency, he toiled for months preparing it. Those who criticized him for taking so long, including Ralph Waldo Emerson, did not understand, says Goodheart, that Lincoln "had been arming himself for the terrible conHict ahead.· He "never again needed to ask himself whether he should be flghtmg or what he was fighhng for. With these large questions settled, the smaller ones of how to f1ght often answered themselves. •

Boman's Uncoln and Citizens' Rights m Civil War Missouri provides a valuable case study of the state's role m preserving the Umon. It shows that nothmg was accomplished easily in this border state, as there seemed to be perpetual guerrilla and political warfare between secessionists and Unionists, persistent conflict between radical and conservative anti-slavery fact1ons, and, justified by military necessity, frequent suppression of citizens' nghts.

That there was a secess1on cnsis in Missouri, the e1ghth most populous state m the Union, is not surpnsmg. The slave populat1on had grown from around 87,000 in 1850 to nearly 115,000 in 1860 (almost ten percent of the state's total). Slave interests were well represented in the legislature and found support in all parts of the state. Missouri shared borders with other slave states-Arkansas, Tennessee, and Kentucky-and with the Kansas Terntory, where bloody battles over slavery in the 1850s spilled into the state. Kansas was admitted to the United States as a free state in January 1861. Arkansas joined the Confederacy in May 1861 and Tennessee a month later. Kentucky remained in the Union.

In 1861, secessionists controlled Missouri's entire state government, and the governor, Claiborne Jackson, strongly favored secession and worked toward accomplishing it. Hopmg for support for h1s cause, he called a convent1on "to determine M1ssouri's future standmg m the union of states" and asked for legislation to strengthen the state mihlla. Hamilton Gamble, a former chief justice of Missouri's Supreme Court, was elected to the convention and served as chairman of a committee on federal relations. There he crafted a report stating that no valid cause ex1sted to justify secess1on. The delegates agreed-even though a majonty of them could be called, m today's termmology, "pro-South" -and rejected secession almost unanimously. Jackson, however, continued to work for secession. purchase arms, and establish camps for traimng his followers for combat. Soon he aligned himself openly with the Confederacy, as did his followers.

The Lincoln administration, despite the President's des~re to have Missourians ach1eve reconciliation on their own, was "pulled along by events and the need to meet the very real emergencies it confronted," writes Boman, "while at the same time, to the extent possible, trymg to respect the c1vil liberties of the people. •

page 19

Number 1897 LINCOLN LORE

That protection did not amount to much. Very early in the conflict, General Lyon established "a strict surveillance" over river traffic to prevent the import of secessionist troops and supplies to sustain them. He also ordered the suppression of the Missouri State Journal, whose editor had close ties with former governor Jackson. The infringement on liberties increased when General John Fr~mont took charge of military affairs. Without consulting Lincoln, he ordered that all persons bearing arms against the United States should be shot and that property of disloyal citizens should be confiscated. He also established martial law over all of Missouri. Perhaps most significantly, without consulting his commander·in·chief, he declared the emancipation of disloyal persons' slaves. These orders were also at odds with the efforts of the newly elected governor, Hamilton Gamble.

Major General John c. Fremont (t8t3·1890)

was an explorer, first Republican Party

presidential candidate, and Civil War officer.

(LN unnumbered)

They were also more than President Lincoln could support, as he recognized how they would provoke the wrath of citizens he wanted to draw into the Union fold even though they were favorable to slavery and secession. So, as gently as possible he countermanded all of Fr~mont's actions except the one on martial law, pointing out the damage they would cause, both in Missouri and implicitly in Kentucky his native state. He did everything possible to avoid driving that state into the Confederacy.

In similar fashion Boman describes the complicated efforts of General Henry Halleck and General William Rosecrans, Fr~mont's successors, to establish order in Missouri. To accomplish this, they too suppressed publications hostile to the Union cause, and, with Lincoln's tacit support, took

other measures that would not be tolerated in peacetime.

After t reating in great detail all of these matters and others not mentioned here, Boman concludes that "it is difficult to imagine a scenario in which Missouri came through the conflict without a great amount of trouble and at least some significant curtailment of civil liberties," particularly because the vast majority of its citizens identified with the South and the institution of slavery.

This book reflects a prodigious amount of careful research, and it is generally well written. While it is easy to lose one's way in the maze of detail Boman offers, he rescues readers by occasionally offering succinct summaries that give meaning to the detail.

As I read Goodheart's 1861, I frequently remarked to myself and anyone around me who would listen, "this is no ordinary book." Even the endnotes are worth scanning for gems. Neither is Boman's an ordinary book, but it lacks the sparkle that makes its counterpart so appealing.

Civil War aficionados tend to focus on major battles, which receive scant treatment in these books. Boman, for example, makes only a passing reference to the battle in August 1861 at Wilson's Creek in Southwest Missouri, and he does not mention Nathaniel Lyon's death there.

The battles described in Hearts Touched by Fire: The Best of Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, edited by Harold Holzer (Modern Library, 1227 pages, $38) would no doubt appeal to battle·focused persons. It is drawn from a four·volume collection of essays by leaders in Civil War battles, such as P.G.T. Beauregard, Joseph E. Johnson, Lew Wallace, John Pope, Oliver 0. Howard, George McClellan and Ulysses S. Grant, as well as by lesser·known people who participated in the battles. These essays were first published in 1887·88. Contemporary Civil War scholars have written introductions for each year of the war. ·

Myron A. Marty, a professor emeritus at Drake University, lives in Monticello, Ill.

[This is an expansion of a review published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 15,2011. Used by pcnnission.]

All historiical photos are from the Lincoln Financial Collection, Allen County Public Library, Fort Wayne.

page 20